This nonprofit aims to help build a more equitable and secure future for the next generation of Black Americans. Derek Minor and the team at Ownership is the New Black promote Black ownership through storytelling, the arts, and advocacy. Frederick Barr is one business owner who is empowered by Ownership is the New Black.
Frederick shares, "When you have ownership, you have the power to control your life and set your life on the trajectory for your success of what you want and what you believe in."
Video Transcript
[Walking around kitchen and singing] Frederick Barr: (Singing) My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’s blood and righteousness. I dare not trust this sweetest spring.
[Interview in a studio]
Derek Minor: At the end of the Civil War, Black people owned half of 1% of the wealth in this country. If you fast-forward today, we own 1.5% of the wealth in this country. That's a very small incremental change. My goal is to accelerate that number.
Ownership is the New Black is a movement that's based around three things. It's empowering business owners, celebrating business owners, and activating, doing activations.
Frederick Barr: I'm a business owner. We started off with a hot dog cart. I did not want to be told no, that I couldn't enter into a business. And so, one of the things that we focused on was to try to meet all of the needs that any of our potential customers or clients would have. And so, we ended up having two food trucks, two food trailers, 11 hot dog carts, a party bus, and now we have a brick-and-mortar, and it's called Barr's Music City Soul Food.
Ownership is important because it gives you identity. You become your own boss. You are the one to set yourself on a path for success, and you're not dependent on someone else to establish your worth. And the harder you work, the more your worth increases.
[In Frederick Barr’s restaurant kitchen]
Derek Minor: We're talking about minor things. We're not talking about anything other than people owning their homes, owning some land, owning businesses. We're not trying to do anything super special, we're just trying to catch people up, which, I guess, in turn, is special when we consider the history in the country.
[Recording artist in recording both] Singing.
We take artists, and we turn them into activists. What if we use that voice to empower one another as far as education? What if we could change the wealth gap with education through music and art? Artists are also business owners as well, so one, we teach them how to further their business, and then also how to advocate for others that need help in their local community. Everything starts off with an idea. And then, from that idea, we motivate people, and then from that motivation, that's where you see the actual change. Most programs that are built for minorities rarely get any activity, and it's not because the programs aren't good, it's not because there's a lot of red tape, it's literally just because they don't know they exist. Most of the time, they don't know. But if we put the White House with artists, and we use them to educate the people, now we just solve that problem.
Frederick Barr: When you have ownership, you have the power to control your life and set your life on the trajectory for your success of what you want and what you believe in.
Derek Minor: That's what's important to me, pushing the ball forward and creating a future to where my kids, they grow up in a household knowing about ownership, knowing about our history, and then knowing how to empower others, to teach them how to be owners as well. That's my mission. I'm very focused on that.
Frederick Barr: (Singing) My hope is built on nothing less.
